The Vandals men’s club hockey team beat Washington State University 6-5 in an overtime shootout Saturday.
In the packed Palouse Ice Rink, the Vandals faced off against their rival Cougs.
Idaho’s starting line consisted of senior captain Kasey Peach on defense, senior forward Dustin Pierce, sophomore Cole Kubic on defense, sophomore forward Wyatt Tatakis and freshman Austin Smith in goal.
The game started out very fast paced and the Cougs put the pressure on early with a goal with 16:28 remaining in the first period.
The Vandals hit back with a goal by Peach with 12:44 left in the first period.
Momentum continued for Idaho when the Cougs got a two-minute minor and they capitalized on the power play with another goal by freshman Dawson Burgess making the score 2-1 with 6:39 left in the first.
The first period played out with no scores from either team.
The second period saw a big momentum change with no goals from either team but the Cougs came out to win in the third period.
With 14:45 left in the third, WSU scored to tie up the game at 2-2. Just a few minutes later they scored again to take the lead three to two with 11:25 left.
WSU’s momentum continued with another goal at 6:35 advancing their lead four to two.
“I just tried to do my best, I had to keep holding in there and mentally reset,” Smith said.
Idaho called a timeout and captain Peach had words with the team.
“Once we go down every guy kind of wants to put the team on his back but all we had to do was simplify the game, play as a team and take shots,” junior Xavier Murdoch said.
With less than two minutes left in the game the Vandals put pressure on with another goal but Peach put the pressure back on with another goal with just 1:33 left in the third.
The momentum continued for Idaho and Peach picked up his hat trick with 56:6 seconds left in the third tying the game four to four.
“It is crazy to see a team come back with one 30th of the game left and put two in to keep everyone alive,” Idaho head coach Kyle Watne said.
Overtime started and the five-minute running clock was ticking down. Neither team scored so the game would be decided by a shootout.
The shootout comprised of three players from both teams taking turns going one on one with the opposing goalie.
Idaho’s lineup consisted of Murdoch, then Peach and finally Pierce.
Fans held their breath as Murdoch shot and missed the first shot of the shootout.
WSU fired back but Idaho’s goalie held strong and stopped the first shot as well.
Peach was next up and put in a shot bringing him four for the night.
The pressure was on WSU — and they missed the second shot.
Peirce was last up for Idaho — a make here would win the game, a miss would give the Cougs another chance.
“I thought I would kind of slow it down and he poke-checked me so I lost the edge there,” Pierce said.
WSU clutched the last shot tying the first round pushing to round two.
The pressure was on Murdoch again.
“I am just glad that Austin (goalie) was able to give me a second one, and when I saw it go in I had to double check and see that the ref called it a goal,” Murdoch said.
Washington State needed to clutch this goal to stay in the game, but Idaho’s goalie held strong to win the game.
“We battled hard, but it was a little rougher than normal, we ended up taking it to them and it felt really good,” Pierce said.
Connor Swersey can be reached at [email protected]